Fracture modes, damage tolerance and failure mitigation in marine composites

The fracture behaviour of composite materials and structures is quite complex with respect to metals and it is difficult to predict fracture modes intuitively. In addition to the failure modes which are commonly observed in composite structures, the marine environment can introduce new failure mechanisms such as blistering. During the design process of composite structures, it is important to determine the load-carrying capability of a structure once it has been damaged by service loads; this is known as damage tolerance. The repair process can be done based on the severity of the damage. For major damage, the bonded patch repair technique can be an effective technique for composites.